The First Sign: Moses Turns Water into Blood, Christ Turns Water into Wine
Old Testament: Exodus 7:19-21
The Lord also said to Moses: Say to Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand upon the waters of Egypt, and upon their rivers, and streams and pools, and all the ponds of waters, that they may be turned into blood: and let blood be in all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and of stone. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded: and lifting up the rod he struck the water of the river before Pharao and his servants: and it was turned into blood. And the fishes that were in the river died: and the river corrupted, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river, and there was blood in all the land of Egypt.
Old Testament, also: Exodus 4:9
But if they will not even believe these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the river water, and pour it out upon the dry land, and whatsoever thou drawest out of the river shall be turned into blood.
New Testament: John 2:1, 3-11
And the third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee: and the mother of Jesus was there. ... And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith to them: Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And Jesus saith to them: Draw out now, and carry to the chief steward of the feast. And they carried it. And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water; the chief steward calleth the bridegroom, And saith to him: Every man at first setteth forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee; and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
The connection
The first of the plagues of Egypt was a sign worked on water. Aaron lifted the rod over the river and "it was turned into blood", even in the "vessels of wood and of stone", and "the Egyptians could not drink" it (Exodus 7:19-21). St John opens his Gospel with the contrast: "the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Then he tells the first sign of Jesus, and it too is worked on water. At a wedding in Cana the wine fails; the mother of Jesus says, "They have no wine"; six waterpots "of stone" stand ready for the purifyings of the Law, and the water drawn from them is "water made wine", the best wine kept until now. John calls it "This beginning of miracles", and says that by it Jesus "manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him" (John 2:11). Moses' sign was a judgment that made water undrinkable and turned the Nile to death. Christ's is a gift at a marriage feast that makes water better than it was. The Fathers read the water as the old covenant and the wine as its fulfilment. St Augustine says: "those Scriptures were the water. He made the water wine when He opened to them the meaning of these things, and expounded the Scriptures." St Cyril of Jerusalem sees the next step: "He once in Cana of Galilee, turned the water into wine, akin to blood, and is it incredible that He should have turned wine into blood?" The Catechism joins the mother's request to the Eucharist: at Cana she asks her Son for the needs of a wedding feast, and "this is the sign of another feast - that of the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request of the Church, his Bride" (CCC 2618).
Moral sense
The wine failed at Cana and nobody noticed but Mary. She did not solve it herself, and she did not tell her Son how to solve it. She told Him what was lacking, and told the servants, "Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." Then the servants did something that made no sense: they filled jars with water for a wedding that needed wine, and filled them to the brim. The miracle waited on that plain obedience. What God asks of us is often as ordinary as filling a jar, and He is pleased to change it only after we have done it fully. When our joy runs out, tell Him through His mother, and do whatever He says.
Anagogical sense
The water of Egypt turned to blood was a sign of death on the enemies of God's people. At Cana the water becomes wine, and the wine at the Last Supper becomes His Blood, which is life: he that "drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life" (John 6:55). Cana is the first sign, and the Apocalypse shows the last, when a voice cries, "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Apocalypse 19:9). God did not give His best first. He kept it for the wedding of His Son, and the saints will drink it new in His Father's kingdom.
The Fathers
St Augustine, in the Catena Aurea on John 2:1-11: "those Scriptures were the water. He made the water wine when He opened to them the meaning of these things, and expounded the Scriptures." St Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Mysteries IV.2: "He once in Cana of Galilee, turned the water into wine, akin to blood, and is it incredible that He should have turned wine into blood?"
Warrant
Interpretive because neither John nor the Fathers in the site's texts set the first plague beside Cana; the pairing rests on John's own contrast of Moses and Christ (John 1:17), on both being the first sign worked on water, and on John's word for the miracles, semeia, which is the Septuagint word for Moses' signs (Exodus 4:8-9). John calls Cana arche ton semeion, the beginning of the signs. The "vessels of wood and of stone" of Exodus 7:19 are in the Greek en te tois xylois kai en tois lithois, and John's jars are lithinai hydriai, jars of stone; the echo is slight and is noted, not pressed. What is patristic is the reading of the water and wine as the old covenant fulfilled (St Augustine, in the Catena Aurea on John 2) and the step from Cana to the Eucharist (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis IV.2), and the Catechism makes the same step (CCC 2618).
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2618.
The verses
Exodus 7:19 · Exodus 7:20 · Exodus 7:21 · Exodus 4:9 · John 2:1 · John 2:3 · John 2:4 · John 2:5 · John 2:6 · John 2:7 · John 2:8 · John 2:9 · John 2:10 · John 2:11
